Walks in Sussex: The Mad Miller
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- Опубліковано 20 вер 2024
- John Olliver, a miller on Highdown Hill above Worthing in West Sussex, was said to be mad because he built his tomb 27 years before he died. He was also said to be in league with Sussex Smugglers.
Up on Highdown is also an early Iron Age hill Fort. Join me as I go up Highdown to investigate.
I am Richard Vobes, the Bald Explorer, exploring Britain. Check out my website at: www.Vobes.com
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Hi Richard
Recently found your wonderful vlogs. Re: the mill on Highdown Hill, as a child I distinctly remember climbing to the top of the derelict mill in the 1950s - I lived near the Roundstone Pub (East Preston) at the time. Next to the mill were a couple of derelict cottages and also a chalk pit in which friends and I used to play. I believe that the mill was sold in later years and converted into a modern home. It is located further down the west side of Highdown Hill towards Angmering. Easiest approach on foot is probably from The Spotted Cow pub in Angmering eastwards and cross the by-pass via the footbridge and continue up the lane opposite. Hope this helps in your search.
Christine
Thanks so much for the extra information. How fascinating. These old memories are so important. They really help pinpoint past treasures.
Hi Richard. I know I'm a bit late to the party but we came across your video while researching the mad Miller of Gorring. My wife is related to him through her paternal grandmother so we found your vlog very interesting. We will definitely be making a visit to the tomb
You should've ran around his grave and then done an interview with his ghost.
That's true - he would have had much to say I reckon!
Excellent, Richard, as always!
Stuart Davies Thank you so much!
Beautiful.
There's a grave on Box Hill, in Surrey, with a Major Peter Labelliere, also buried upside down.
Here you go: ua-cam.com/video/PfLlYJ-NyZY/v-deo.html
As in all of your videos, you've been able to capture the wonderful and interesting stories of the common, everyday things and people that existed before us - that which has made us who and what we are. And you so ably prove that this fascinating history lives all around us, and is there if we simply look for it. Please keep up the great work!
Derek Estes Thank you very much. I appreciate those words very much. Thanks for watching my nonsense. :)
I'm a newcomer to your intriguing videos. I should think you've probably done Mad Jack Fuller in Burwash. Don't know whether it is still there, but coming across the overhead conveyor belt for the Mountfield Gypsum Mines, in the middle of the woods, was quite a surprise. The grave of Frank Bridge, Benjamin Britten's teacher is in Findon Church, if I remember rightly. The hammer ponds of the old iron industry are everywhere. What was the purpose of Brightling Beacon? These are just a few random Sussex features that come to mind . . .
Some very good suggestions there - thank you.
@@RichardVobes, I meant Friston church in East Sussex, not Findon church . . .
His mill house Richard was north of where his tomb is but the windmill was sited in the southwest corner of the Highdown Hill camp according to the Sussex HER and the mound is visible on my phones google maps aerial view.
Great views, a great story, a great walk - the perfect antidote to a Saturday afternoon thunderstorm.
Thanks Simon - glad you liked it. Hope the thunder goes soon!
Great videos Richard, having listened and enjoyed the podcasts for years, I think you have found you niche with these
Thanks so much - fingers crossed for good weather - it really makes a difference. Thanks for watching and listening to my previous nonsense. :)
Thanks Richard. I reckon you were almost certainly correct to suspect that the windmill was located at the clump. There would have remained shallow footings making any subsequent groundworks difficult at that location and consequently allowed such overgrowth. I have often heard of the Roundstone tale. It makes sense for the mill to be on the western side from that aspect as it overlooks Roundstone now. Really interesting thanks Richard. Keep them coming.
Thanks very much
An excellent walk Richard, your on a windmill roll.
Thanks very much - I have a strange fascination with windmills.
I do hope you've found the mill since this trip. You weren't quite there were you? As for the tomb. I remember back in the late 80s my neighbours had an old army Scania truck and late one night they drove off in it. It was make in the morning also a few police cars had parked nearby. The neighbours had driven up the hill, put chains around the railings of the tomb and wrecked it all. I also knew the building company that rebuilt it and the builders said there were no signs of a coffin or John Olliver.
I was off a bit I know.
I love your videos Richard! You've gone to so many places i remember from my childhood when I lived in Suussex, I think 'has Richard been there?' and the answer is usually yes! lol its great seeing my old stomping grounds, if you ever visit my neck of the woods i'll happily show you around, (providing you haven't been here already lol) Have you gone hunting for the wood carved mice in Chichester Cathedral yet? I remember my Mam taking me shopping there when I was a child and I always wanted to find the mice the carpenters carved into certain aspects of building. I believe they have made it a children's animal trail now but when I was a kid it was a quaint qwerk of the place. Jen
I haven't been there yet - will have to check them out sometime! Thanks for the suggestion.
Thanks from Rome, GA, USA. Very interesting. :)
Thanks Kristi for watching and commenting - very kind.
I'd never heard of the Mad Miller... But with his quirky ways and penchant for smuggling I'm sure he'd fit in well in the Poldark series on TV. 👍
Hellyers Ha! yes. He'd be a perfect character for Poldark. :)
Fascinating stuff Richard
Thanks Steve.
😂🤣😂🤣 A little barking! I got to remember to use that. That made me laugh out loud - the window is wide open so I'm sure the neighbors prob think I'm barking mad now.😏
Barking - the Miller was certainly that.
There are historic maps on line. That could have given you a clue.
Thank for your lovely videos really enjoy You live an few doors down from my auntie and we’re your dad used to live was my nans as I used to go to elm grove school so thank you keep up the good work
Thanks very much - you clearly know the area quite well then.
The mill was on the top of the hill, on the western rim of the Iron Age earthworks. Unmarked, and just beyond the copse to went into looking for the mill is the site of a Roman Bath House. A curious thing to have on a hill, but in VERY wet weather, when the water table is high enough, natural springs do appear just above the structure. Somewhere near there, there must be a small villa too.
Looking forward to James Sainsbury to show me round.
Love the videos Richard ! Will you be doing any more canal videos ?
Yes Sam, that is definitely the plan. Do you have an favourites you can recommend? Some many lovely canals and wonderful scenery. Did you see this programme I made for TV? ua-cam.com/video/f0-4Nyos4rg/v-deo.html
Richard Vobes it was the community channel that got me fixed on your videos :-) , I'm a fan of the Thames and Severn as I live near the Cirencester branch (Gloucestershire) but I would love to know more about the Somerset coal canal or other abandoned ones ?
sam Brazier Thanks so much for watching. I do hope to make more videos about canals in the future.
Great thank you....if you kept walking not to too far you would have found it !...you might like Salvington Mill and also the gardens on the left up the road to Highdown Hill
Oh yes - I have made videos at Highdown. :)
Must give you a headache being buried upside down, as I often thought that, when standing on the top of Lieth hill. by the Tower, looking at the grave of one who was also upside down for the same reason
Yes it probably does! :)
If tax evasion was the order of the day, you can bet the authorities demolished it without record. I bet you were near the site though. I recently read a book stating that Highdown was actually the first communal point as not only was it the highest point but the rest of what is now Worthing, Ferring, East Preston et al was all swamp/marshland. My Dad lives in Midhurst Drive and the pathway from St. Mary's church all the way to past Ferring through The Twittern is the boundary from glacial periods where hard versus marshland going back thousands of years is now the small but regularly used walkway. Theoretically it's apparently part of the walkway that also runs along the same East to West trail that encompasses the little bit of path left between George V avenue and Sea Place called Courtland's Way. Just an interesting tidbit for those ofus that are maybe a bit geeky 🙂
Interesting - you must let know the name of that book!
Nice one richard..
Thanks Steve
great film Richard just up the road from me i have run around the grave as well but no ghost that i saw but who knows i just might have been looking the wrong way
at the time as i am a paranormal investigator i had to try i have filmed up there at night as well , so thank you again for risking life and limb in the brambles and stingers and i hope you got out ok cheers from old trev
Thanks Trev - I have not tried ghost hunting for a while - I will have to do so ghost stories soon.
I first thought it was going to be a tale of olde Sussex 🤣
Thanks for sharing another great story I would otherwise never have heard of. Have you ever though of making a business of your passion and knowledge about the area you're living in? You make people from far away like to visit your homeland.
If you would i.e. write a travellers guide book, providiing a map and the stories and QR-code links to the UA-cam videos that would certainly be something worth purchasing, and luring tourists visiting all those places.
Well I would love to try and make some cash from this.
That's a great idea. I will have to give it some thought.
I could contribute and provide some external perspective.
bitman Sounds great. I would need to think how I could put all this together.
Great video! He sounds nuts.
iamaseeker I think he was!
. . . . someone who had a notion of magnetic pole reversal?
Didn't the smugglers work at night??? The mad miller wouldn't see the smugglers ships by day.... they were only about at night.... and so were the excise men who were trying to catch them...how would the smugglers see the position of the mill's sails..... at night? Confusing.... 😳
I would imagine you are right, but possibly the position of the sails was a signal to the 'owlers' of the locality that 'job' was on (or off) that night and be ready to rendezvous where ever they had agreed. I guess we shall never know for sure. On a night with a full moon, the windmill may have been visible as a silhouette - but if there was a wind, I dare say the miller would have continued to mill anyway to make use of the free power. So, who knows?
So you ran seven ties round my grave,and that means that your very brave! Now my spirit will tell why I’m buried on my head,I crossed a member of the Hawkhurst gang! The one called Ted!!
Hello Ted - hope the headache gets better soon!
Lost again 😀 great story
Cheers!